Thank the honeymoon

When somebody is new at their job, we always use the term "he is still in his honeymoon period". San Francisco 49'ers coach Jim Harbaugh had a classic honeymoon moment last weekend. The niners were leading and playing really well against the Cowboys when they stalled at about the 37 yard line and settled for a 55 yard field goal with over 11 minutes to go in the game. The kicker nailed it, but the boys committed a penalty - the kind of penalty that would typically be considered back-breaking. These are the penalties that gives life to a stalled offense and drags the defense back on to the field and asks them to now defend an even shorter field. It was a 15 yarder and offered the ball to the Niners offense at the 22 yard line. Harbaugh surprisingly declined the penalty and instead decided to tag it to the kick-off. I was shocked to say the least. Sure, it was a long field goal, but it was a 15 yard penalty. Even if the offense didn't move an inch from there, it would have given the niners a 39 yard field goal, which you would assume is pretty easy to convert in this day and age of HGH enhanced athletes. If it was a 5 yard penalty, it would have been a different story. The worst case scenario would have been a retry on a 50 yard field goal and who knows if the kicker converts again. But he declined a 15 yarder. This decision basically meant Harbaugh had no faith in his offense. The only way this penalty was going to hurt the niners was if the offense either fumbled the ball, threw an interception or got sacked way behind or sacked multiple times and gave it's kicker another long field goal. All things a decent offense and an average QB can avoid.

Bad things can happen and does happen to NFL offenses every Sunday, but you can't play or coach scared. There is a difference between being conservative and being scared and Harbaugh was scared in this case. He was scared to put the ball in his offense and Alex Smith's hands. He was scared that his offensive line was going to screw up. All valid concerns given the talent on that side of the ball, but if you can't accept the ball on their 22- yard line, you have bigger problems. Being conservative or even scared is not going to save your season in that case. To be fair to Harbaugh, Brian Bilick on TV was not sure if he should take the penalty either. The logic was that you don't take points off the board. I am sure there is some unwritten rule somewhere for coaches on this and thats why Bilick was very familiar with it. But Harbaugh followed the rule to the T. The niners went up 24-14 at that point and the Cowboys went onto tie the game and won it in overtime. Interestingly, Harbaugh was scared for his offense and his team losing the game, not for his job. From a job security perspective, it was safer to take the ball back because a turnover then would have been Alex's or Gore's fault and not his. By making this decision, it was all Harbaugh's fault. Thats a level of cunning he doesn't have to resort to in his 2-Nd game as a head coach and hopefully never. But it is also because this is just his second game, that he gets away easy. He better be glad he is still in his honeymoon period because if Mike Singletary or Mike Nolan had done this closer to the end of their coaching tenure, the niner faithful would have roasted them over the coals.

This game also made a hero out of Tony Romo and rightfully so as he came back with a broken rib and played real well to put the boys over the top. He went from goat to a hero just like that and all the toughness questions were erased overnight. Thanks to his honeymoon, Harbaugh is not facing too many tough questions either. The niner faithful is still busy scheming how to get Alex Smith out of town! Across the bay, the Raiders are also dealing with the aftermath of a tough defeat they snatched from the jaws of victory. They let the Bills score in every possession in the second half to the tune of 35 points and lost a game they were dominating in the first half. Jason Campbell played real well even without 3 of his top receivers and his top TE. I don't ever remember the top 4 pass catchers being hurt and out. Good for the Raiders, none of them are that good anyways! They seem to have replaced them rather easily. The Bills and Ryan Fitzpatrick are playing great right now. Next week's Bills-Pats contest should be an high-octane affair and might surprise us just like last week's Bills-Raiders. In Carolina, Cam Newton continues to impress. He threw for more than 400 yards again. I am glad I predicted it will happen again, though I didn't expect it so soon against the world champions. He is hosting the Jaguars this Sunday and Blaine Gabbert is going to start for the Jags. That an interesting storyline for the weekend for sure. Arizona Cardinals lost a tough one on the road, but the overall outlook for the team still looks good. Kolb is doing well and the Rams are not doing great. So the Cards can easily make it to the playoffs if they don't self-destruct.

Overall, the Lions, Redskins and the Bills are looking better than expected and the Rams, Chiefs and the Colts are looking worse than expected. Week 3 will clarify things much more. Bring on week 3!